In his first comments since law-enforcement officials arrested 14 soccer officials and executives Wednesday, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation said that momentum is gaining to vote FIFA president Joseph “Sepp” Blatter out of office.

Sunil Gulati, who is also a member of FIFA’s ruling executive committee, said he plans to vote for Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan in Friday’s election, the candidate U.S. Soccer nominated earlier this year.

“There is an ability in the next 24 hours to effect something in FIFA,” Gulati said from Zurich Thursday in a conference call with U.S. reporters. “It’s going to be an interesting election. What is happening on the ground is very different than what is seen on the outside.”

Gulati, who represents Concacaf, the confederation comprising North and Central America and the Caribbean, is the lone Concacaf representative to the FIFA executive committee who wasn’t arrested Wednesday. He said he was shocked by the allegations, which could force Concacaf and FIFA to change the way they do business. Concacaf president Jeffrey Webb, whom Gulati had said was a reform-minded executive, was among those arrested Wednesday for taking bribes.

“Even with checks and balances, if you have conspiracies involving top people, that makes it very difficult to monitor,” Gulati said. “It’s been widely written that there has been an investigation going on but we had no expectation of what we learned yesterday.”

FIFA faced calls to postpone its presidential election this Friday and for President Joseph “Sepp" Blatter to stand down as commercial sponsors voiced their concerns over the unfolding corruption scandal. Photo: EPA

Gulati said the investigation and prosecution in the U.S. of anyone who violates the trust of the organizations they represent were essential, even if it causes resentment throughout the rest of the world and results in the U.S. failing to gain support to host a future World Cup. The U.S. has expressed interest in bidding for the event for 2026.

“For U.S. Soccer, having Concacaf and FIFA governed and managed with integrity is far more important than hosting any event,” he said. “That is our focus right now.”

Concacaf announced Thursday that it had provisionally banned Webb and promoted Alfredo Hawit of Honduras to replace him. It also set up a special committee to handle Concacaf business, made up of its three North American representatives: Gulati, Mexico’s Justino Compean and Canada’s Victor Montagliani.